Motifs of the Revival: Fishes
Fish have been used as a decorative element for centuries.
Like many archetypal symbols, fish have been used as a decorative element without regard to meaning. How to explain the recurrent use of the carp, say, in English and American Aesthetic movement design of the late Victorian period? Tastemakers of the era were drawn to Japanese design. (Koi are domesticated, ornamental carp. And in Japanese, koi is a homophone for a word that means “affection” or “love.”)
The ubiquitous carp of Japanese design is a symbol of “youth, bravery, perseverance, strength, and self-defense” [Encyclopedia Mythica]. That, and not the fish’s complex Christian symbolism, probably explains its Western popularity during the 1870s and 1880s, extending then into Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau design.
Fish Motifs
The fish symbol is ancient and ubiquitous in religion and design, appearing in Greece, Rome, and Scandinavia: among Semitic people; in Buddhism and Hindu mythology; in Egypt, China, and Japan, Oceania and Africa and the Americas.
The fish is phallic and fecund yet, carrying the power of the waters and life itself, it is associated with the Mother. There is a universal belief that fish have a kind of pre-knowledge. Fish is also food, sometimes sacred but often a symbol of plenty.
Patricia Poore is Editor-in-chief of Old House Journal and Arts & Crafts Homes, as well as editorial director at Active Interest Media’s Home Group, overseeing New Old House, Traditional Building, and special-interest publications.
Poore joined Old House Journal when it was a Brooklyn-brownstoner newsletter in the late 1970s. She became owner and publisher and, except for the years 2002–2013, has been its editor. Poore founded the magazines Old-House Interiors (1995–2013) and Early Homes (2004–2017); their content is now available online and folded into Old-House Journal’s wider coverage. Poore also created GARBAGE magazine (1989–1994), the first unaffiliated environmental consumer magazine.
Poore has participated, hands-on, in several restorations, including her own homes: a 1911 brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and a 1904 Tudor–Shingle Style house in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she brought up her boys and their wonderful dogs.
